E-Commerce

In this day and age, e-commerce has become a household word. In
simplest terms, it's the selling of products online. Via your own
website or an online marketplace like eBay, you can promote and
sell products online, taking orders and accepting payment--all
without stepping foot in a storefront or ever seeing your customers
face-to-face.

The most amazing aspect of e-commerce is its ability to impact
sales and marketing efforts immediately. By going online, suddenly
a neighborhood bakery or a home based consulting service expands
its reach to a national or even international base of potential
customers. Web-based sales know no international boundaries.
Forrester Research, which analyzes online trends and statistics,
projects the online retail market for U.S. businesses to be $230
billion by 2008. That's a full 10 percent of anticipated total U.S.
retail sales.

Not only is the internet increasing the number of potential
customers that a company can reach, but it's also driving
profitability, according to research from IPSOS, commissioned by
PayPal. The survey discovered that, far from being an extra
"expense," internet operations boosted businesses' bottom lines. Of
small businesses that sell online, 64 percent said the internet has
increased their revenues or sales, 48 percent felt the internet
helped to expand their geographic reach in the U.S. and 73 percent
saved money by decreasing administrative costs.

Cash flow is of significant importance to a new business--online
or brick and mortar. The IPOS study found that small-business
owners who conduct business online feel it allows them to receive
payments faster and conduct business easier. When entrepreneurs
move online, they establish themselves on a level playing field
with larger competitors. On the internet, even the smallest online
retailer can be as attractive and as functional as the largest big
box store--without the need to have a physical presence on every
street corner. Often, small shops project a "boutique" feel that
attracts shoppers, who perceive smaller businesses as more
distinctive than larger stores.

Design and Navigation

Good websites begin with a good design that's simple to use. The
graphic design and content on the homepage should grab the
consumer's attention, and the interior pages should be easy to
navigate. Information must be easily found and should be expressed
in the "language" of the customer, rather than the company's
internal lingo.

Here are 10 simple tips to consider when deciding on how the
site will look and how customers will navigate through it:

Immediately tell visitors on the site what the
company does.

Get users to the information they want in two
clicks.

Consider including headers and links that give the
store's name, and show a "tree" branching from the homepage to the
current page. Visitors should know where they are within the
website at all times.

Allow visitors to find answers to questions
easily.

Incorporate sufficiently large fonts and images,
as well as audio descriptions where appropriate, so that content is
accessible to users with disabilities.

Pay special attention to the quality of
information, and ensure that the text is written well and spelled
correctly.

Use buzzwords sparingly.

Include a link to the homepage on every page so
that in one click, users can be led there.

Develop visuals that are useful, not flashy and
distracting. Useful visuals include illustrations or photos of
products, graphics that separate categories of products, or maps
with directions.

Determine which technologies are appropriate and
which are overkill. For example, developing a Flash landing page
may be a nice design feature. It will become prohibitive, however,
if users have dial-up, a traditionally slow Internet connection
speed.

Marketing Your Site

When it comes to conducting business on the internet, setting up
a website is just the first step. The greatest website in the world
does you no good if no one visits it. And attracting visitors is
getting tougher by the day. With literally thousands of new
websites created every day, the competition is tough. Here are some
ideas for getting visitors to your site:

Get listed with the major search engines. Google,
InfoSeek, Excite, AltaVista, Yahoo!, HotBot and Lycos are the most
popular search engines. Visit their sites for instructions on
getting your site's address, or URL, listed with them. That way,
when online users do a search for "tennis rackets," your sporting
goods shop's web address will come up.

In addition to the big-name search engines, there are hundreds
of smaller search engines on the Web. Search online for companies
that will do the legwork involved in getting your business listed
with these engines.

Enroll in free link exchange programs. These programs
will display your company's banner on other sites if you make space
for third-party banners on yours. Just as with search engines,
there are many link exchange programs. Search online to find
them.

Set up links to related sites. A "link" allows visitors
to your site to click on a website address and instantly link to
another company's site. Send e-mails to sites related to yours and
ask if they'd be interested in establishing mutual links. For
example, a florist could put up a link to a local bridal shop's
site and vice versa.

It's one thing to get visitors to your site and another thing
entirely to get them to come back. Here's some advice on setting up
a site that tempts users to stay and return:

Hit 'em hard. Put all your company's key information,
including your e-mail address and toll-free number, on the first
screen. That way, potential customers will not have to wait until
all your information loads to get an idea what your company is all
about.

Make connections. If possible, hyperlink your e-mail
address; this means visitors can simply click to open a blank
e-mail message and send you a note.

Have fun. People who surf the internet are looking for
fun. You don't have to be wild and wacky (unless you want to). Just
make sure you offer original content presented in an entertaining
way.

Add value. Offering something useful customers can do
adds tremendous value to your site. For example, customers can
track their own packages at FedEx's site or concoct a recipe for a
new drink at the Stolichnaya vodka site. You don't have to get
quite that elaborate, but offering users the ability to download
forms, play games or create something useful or fun will keep them
coming back.

Stage a contest. Nothing's more compelling than giving
something away for free. Have all contestants fill out a
registration form so you can find out who is coming to your
site.

Content is king on the internet. It's essential to have your
site packed with a supply of product information, industry news,
how-to tips or whatever other information your customers are
interested in. More important, that information must also be kept
constantly updated. Make sure the web designer you use is either
willing to update your site for you or can show you how to do it
yourself. After a web surfer has visited your site more than a few
times and found the same information as the previous visit, odds
are good he or she won't come back again.

You can use visitor information collected by your website
software or web-hosting service to help you decide how often to
update your information. If individual visitors are returning an
average of once a week, for instance, you should add to or update
your site at least once a week. The idea is to give them a reason
to come back in hopes of seeing something new.